Upmarket menswear: Reborn in the U.S.A.

Detroit-bred brand Shinola has opened a Palo Alto store at 261 Hamilton Ave.

Detroit-bred brand Shinola has opened a Palo Alto store at 261...

Call it heritage, call it retro, call it one more crest in the inexorable wave of rugged revivalism, but for god’s sake, grab a life preserver, San Francisco. The Americans are coming!

We’re now a good decade into menswear’s fascination with all things American-made, and the contemporary current of hand-hewn accessories and apparel from our native shores have washed up at four fine new boutiques. Two — one in Palo Alto, another in Jackson Square — belong to the Detroit brand Shinola.

Founded in 2011, Shinola certainly has the best story of the American-made surge — its message is at least as strong as its products. Founder Tom Kartsotis already knew a thing or two about the horology game; he founded Fossil Inc. in 1984 and now runs Bedrock Manufacturing out of Texas. In the case of Shinola, however, the plan was to go upmarket from Fossil Inc., set up a factory in Detroit as a bastion of old-fashioned American manufacturing, and create jobs. So far, they count 534.

“Shinola is a brand for people who don’t take no for an answer,” said president Jacques Panis when he stopped into town in December. “Because who would have opened a watch factory in Detroit?” Who but a brand that’s as interested in the means of production as the product itself.

As for the product, it’s nice stuff — sturdy watches, leather goods, sweatshirts, bikes and the sundries of the consciously curated man’s life. It’s all got a rather appealing masculine swagger, just the thing for men whose yen for a “story” about their consumer goods runs deep. The watches range from about $500 to $900 and have a throwback feel, like something you’d find on the wall of your father’s elementary school, or in a filling station in Anytown, USA.

To me it all has a distinct whiff of nostalgia (Panis strongly disagreed when I asked him about it), but Shinola is making an interesting play, betting big that a kind of skills revival might just lead to innovation.

Photo: Tanner Goods

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Tanner Goods, based in Portland, Ore., has opened a store at 651 Divisadero St. selling its durable belts, wallets and other leather goods.

Tanner Goods, based in Portland, Ore., has opened a store at 651 Divisadero St. selling its durable belts, wallets and other leather goods.

Photo: Tanner Goods

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Detroit-bred brand Shinola has opened a Palo Alto store at 261 Hamilton Ave.

Detroit-bred brand Shinola has opened a Palo Alto store at 261 Hamilton Ave.

Photo: Michael David Rose

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Tanner Goods sells accessories from other brands as well, including this wool/cashmere scarf for $140 from Munich brand A Kind of Guise.

Tanner Goods sells accessories from other brands as well, including this wool/cashmere scarf for $140 from Munich brand A Kind of Guise.

Photo: Tanner Goods

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Detroit’s Shinola has a new store in Palo Alto, above, offering upmarket U.S.-made menswear and accessories. Its S.F. store opens later this month.

Detroit’s Shinola has a new store in Palo Alto, above, offering upmarket U.S.-made menswear and accessories. Its S.F. store opens later this month.

Photo: Michael David Rose

Upmarket menswear: Reborn in the U.S.A.

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“We want to, wherever possible, revive industries that have left our shores,” Panis told me, “but when we can’t ourselves, we engage with people making things at quality that we want.”

The watch play certainly seems to be working. According to Panis, the Detroit factory made 55,000 watches in 2013, 150,000 in 2014 and 200,000 in 2015. For all its rearview adulation of American manufacturing, Shinola goes well beyond some mom-and-pop shop plying a forgotten trade. They’re planning to produce audio gear in 2016.

“Our mind-set is revival combined with innovation,” said Panis, “to bring back skill sets in various categories at scale.”

When I stopped into the new Tanner Goods shop on Divisadero Street just before Christmas, the mind-set was shop, shop, shop. Opened just before Thanksgiving, the shophands tell me that Tanner has been doing a brisk trade in the neighborhood. Fittingly, the shop is nestled next to Bar Crudo and a block away from aesthetic cousins the Mill and Perish Trust. Tanner makes durable belts, wallets and other leather accessories (the Utica driving gloves for $125 caught my eye) as well as handsome bags. It’s all well-made — expensive and unflashy.

By way of clothing, the same aesthetic holds with brands like Rogue Territory, Norse Projects, Engineered Garments and Arpenteur. However, I was wooed away from all things American by the Munich brand A Kind of Guise. A chunky scarf of wool and cashmere ran for $140, and the tweedy Khangai shirt jacket for $245 appealed in both texture and touch.

Photo: Tanner Goods

Portland company Tanner Goods recently opened a store on Divisadero Street selling their own line of leather goods, and accessories from other lines.

Portland company Tanner Goods recently opened a store on Divisadero...

Standard and Strange continues its run in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, but it has moved off Temescal Alley to Telegraph Avenue. “We just built out a new space,” reports founder Jeremy Smith. At Standard and Strange, the hard-wearing Americana remains the same, but the shop’s situation between the fried chicken sandwiches of Bakesale Betty and Mexican fare at Dona Tomas is nearly impossible to beat.

As for Shinola, you’ll find one of the new shops in Palo Alto. It’s open already. The San Francisco shop will follow in late January on Jackson Square’s Hotaling Alley. The Hotaling shop will cohabitate with the heritage-minded outdoors brand Filson. Why the pairing? Bedrock Manufacturing owns them both.